


lovecraft is for first dates

by bulletsgerard



Series: strangers [2]
Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Confusion, Fluff, Love of books, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-21
Updated: 2014-10-21
Packaged: 2018-02-22 02:58:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2491928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bulletsgerard/pseuds/bulletsgerard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not that Frank was trying to avoid giving Gerard his jacket back. It was really more of him just forgetting and then putting it off, press repeat about three times.</p>
            </blockquote>





	lovecraft is for first dates

**Author's Note:**

> see, i told you guys i'd finally write a sequel. 
> 
> also-- just saying, there's already a 3rd part in the works. and it will be a lot different than this one and the previous fic. i hope i didn't move it too fast, but hey, hot boys fall for hot boys, what can i say? i love playing god/cupid.

It's not that Frank was _trying_ to avoid giving Gerard his jacket back. It was really more of him just forgetting and then putting it off, press repeat about three times.

Really, it didn't occur to him until about three days later, and he cursed to himself because, _wow_ , he must seem like a _total_ jackass. Or a thief. Or probably both.

It also didn’t help that Frank kind of forgot the apartment number Gerard had said. For fucks sake, he lived in the _same building_ , how could he have forgotten?

The number didn’t come to him until around seven at night, after he’d gotten home from work. When Frank was over with his whole “huzzah!” moment, he grabbed the jacket that was draped over his recliner and hurried down the seemingly endless flights of stairs. He totally could’ve taken the elevator, but that idea just wasn’t present at the time he made his decision.

Frank knocked on the door about three times, suddenly feeling self-conscious for whatever reason. Maybe Gerard wanted him to ring the doorbell? He could’ve been knocking too loud? Who knows, because Frank certainly didn’t.

The door swung open quickly, revealing Gerard’s face, which Frank counted as a victory, but the other man looked exasperated. Frank was relieved when Gerard’s face suddenly went from tired to happy, though.

“Oh, hey Frank. What’s up?” Gerard asked, leaning against the doorframe. Frank probably should tell him he has greenish-yellow paint smeared above his eyebrow.

“Your uh, jacket. I came to return it. I’m sorry it was so delayed, I just kept kinda forgetting about it and--” Frank rambled as he shoved the jacket towards Gerard, “here.”

“Oh, thanks. It’s fine, I mean, I have more than _one_ jacket. I meant it when I said you could just return it whenever,” Gerard shrugged, putting the jacket over his shoulder, staring at Frank a little longer than he’d intended.

“Yeah, well, uh, I didn’t mean to disturb you. You’ve got some green paint above your eyebrow, by the way. Sorry, again, if you were like, working or something,” Frank said, giving Gerard a small smile in return.

“No, it’s cool. I was just uh-- sketching? With paint. Kind of,” Gerard muttered. “I, uh, actually just made some coffee. Do you want some?”

“I could _never_ turn down free coffee,” Frank said with a slight grin. He followed Gerard into the apartment, which almost seemed smaller than his own. It was an organized kind of messy, which was a bit contradicting, but it was almost comfortable. It really wasn’t a surprise to Frank when he saw paint stains on the wood floors and watercolor palettes set out across the dining room table rather than a tablecloth and some plates.

“Here,” Gerard said as he handed over a mug of steaming coffee. The smell almost made the atmosphere around them seem normal.

“You’ve got a nice apartment.” Frank stated, continuing to let his eyes wander. It seemed like there was only three rooms; the kitchen, living room and dining room all merged into one middle space, the bathroom, and a bedroom.

“Eh, I love it but I hate it. It’s okay for the time being though,” Gerard said with a shrug.

There was an amount of silence between the two of them, just standing, running out of conversation. Frank kept glancing over at the other man, giving him the slightest of a smile before taking another sip of his coffee. He was practically burying his face in his mug.

“So about the jacket thing--” Frank started, but was soon cut off by Gerard’s waving hand.

“I didn’t mean for it to come off that way, I just-- I wanted to be nice and you seemed cold and you’re kind of really _cool_. I mean, in the sense of being a rad person, not that you’re always cold.” Gerard rambled, glancing around the room instead of making direct eye contact with Frank.

His words sent Frank into a fit of giggles. He found it cute how Gerard was trying to explain things, even if his brain was telling him, _no_ , you don’t think he’s cute.

“I was just gonna say thank you, because I actually was freezing and you probably saved me from getting sick again.” Frank said, inching just a little bit closer to Gerard. It didn’t seem like the other man had noticed, though.

“Oh. Um-- sorry about that then. I probably made this about ten times more awkward,” Gerard said with the faintest hint of a blush on his face. This made Frank laugh again.

“You’re fine, man. And just so you know, I think you’re rad too,” Frank said, smiling brightly up at Gerard.  

It was like that moment had struck some kind of gold mine in Gerard’s head. He didn’t _want_ to think of it that way, but he was hopelessly _gone_ at this point. His mind had checked out of the building, all because of this one guy who hadn’t known he’d _existed_ until about a week ago.

All while Gerard’s mind was blanking, Frank was going on about some of his favorite books, and must have assumed Gerard was listening because he was zoning out, which probably seemed like he was staring intently at him.

“Gerard?” Frank asked, which sent Gerard back to reality and left him shaking his head and blinking about 10 times.

“What? Sorry-- I kinda… spaced,” Gerard said sheepishly, a blush rising to his face again.

“Oh, I, uh, just was asking if maybe you wanted to come to the bookstore with me. I mean, judging by the looks of your bookshelf it seems like you’ve got _plenty_ of things to read, but I dunno, I figured I might ask. I need to pick up some new stuff and I thought maybe you could suggest some new stuff to me.” This time it was _Frank_ who was left rambling, but he still made eye contact. Frank shrugged and shifted back and forth on his feet.

Gerard just stared for a moment. “Yeah, of course. I’m not really planning on doing anything else today anyway.” he said, giving Frank a reassuring smile.

“Cool. I’m just gonna head back up to my apartment so I can get my wallet and stuff. Do you, uh, wanna come with me?” Frank asked as he put his coffee mug down. He was so giddy he was practically buzzing.

Gerard nodded, “Here, take the jacket too. I heard it’s gonna be kinda cold.” he said, placing the jacket around Frank’s shoulders before following him out the door. Frank could feel his cheeks heating up and just tried to play it cool while Gerard followed him towards the elevator. He was no mind reader but it was pretty clear that Gerard _probably_ didn’t want to go up three flights of stairs.

When they actually did get up to Frank’s apartment, Gerard waited patiently outside the door while it was open. Frank searched through the kitchen to find his wallet, eventually finding it behind a box of stale Cheerios he had probably left out for _way_ too long.

“Ready to go?” Gerard asked, smiling at Frank when he appeared in the doorway, the leather jacket now fully on.

“Yep. It’s not much of a walk,” Frank said casually, closing the door to his apartment and locking it before following Gerard back to the elevator.

The ride back down to the lobby was pretty awkward to say the least, at least it was for Frank. He had his hands stuffed in the pockets of the jacket, glancing all over until he finally made eye contact with Gerard.

“Something on your mind?”

“No I just-- I dunno. I feel like when you see me in that bookstore you’re gonna think I’m a _total_ nerd and think that I’m a weirdo,” Frank said with a shrug, glancing down at his shoes. He was usually a _pretty_ confident person, but with Gerard, there seemed to be this wall of embarrassment around him that he somehow needed to break.

“Man, c’mon, I won’t think you’re a weirdo. You saw the bookshelf in my apartment, it was _filled_ with comics and graphic novels. There’s _no way_ you’re a bigger nerd than I am,” Gerard argued, chuckling softly just before the elevator doors opened.

Frank answered with a shrug as he and Gerard stepped out of the elevator, walking out of the apartment building with him as well. He was standing _excruciatingly_ close, _almost_ close enough that their hands were brushing together. It was causing Frank to blush, which also _just_ _so happened_ to be when Gerard looked over at him. Great.

“You cold?” he asked, tilting his head a bit to get a better look at Frank’s face.

“N-No, just um-- the bookstore is just a couple buildings down,” Frank muttered, immediately speeding up so that he was walking a bit faster than Gerard was. Why the fuck was he being so _shy_? Nothing ever really faltered him as much as Gerard did.

Gerard didn’t respond, but still followed Frank to the store, figuring that he was just a little nervous, though he didn’t like to think of himself as intimidating. A rush of heat went through the both of them as they entered the store, the scent of coffee and hot chocolate filling their senses.

“So um, I’m gonna go to the horror section, you can just-- I dunno. You can go look at whatever you want,” Frank said, shrugging as he pushed his hands into his pockets again. He smiled quickly at Gerard before hurrying off to a part of the bookstore that Gerard was unfamiliar with. It also didn’t help that Gerard kept _staring_ at Frank’s _ass_ every time he was walking in front of him. He was a _total_ perv, and he felt extremely guilty about it, but Frank _did_ tell him to look at whatever he wanted, right?

Gerard headed towards the sci-fi section, since he _really_ needed to stock up on those kinds of books.

An hour passed, and both men were _still_ searching. It was after a while when Gerard went up behind Frank and was _nearly_ resting his head on his shoulder.

“Not finding anything? Me either,” Gerard said softly. It seemed like Frank jumped about three feet in the air at the suddenness, as well as lowness, of Gerard’s voice.

“Fuck, man. Don’t fucking sneak up on me like that,” Frank said, a smile able to be detected in his voice. “Nah, there isn’t anything really new. It sucks, because I’m running out of shit to read.”

“I can lend you some stuff. As long as you return the favor and recommend me some good horror books.” Gerard teased, smiling as he finally took in how close Franks face was to his own. There was something in him that wanted to just kiss his cheek and wrap his arms around Frank’s waist, but Gerard was _pretty_ positive that there was some kind of rule in the “newly-made-friends” handbook that he probably _shouldn’t_ do that if he still wanted to hang out with Frank. Besides, he _barely_ knew him. And this wasn’t even a date.

“Definitely. I’m sure you’ve read pretty much _everything_ Stephen King related right? I can rec you some Lovecraft stuff, I’m a _total geek_ for that guy,” Frank said with a smile, turning his head to look up at Gerard. “We actually should head back, I’ve gotta work early tomorrow, and it’s supposed to be a _long_ day.”

Gerard nodded in agreement, following Frank out of the bookstore and back down the block. It had gotten a lot colder than before, which instinctively brought Frank closer to Gerard while walking.

“Thanks for letting me borrow your jacket again, by the way,” Frank said, looking up at Gerard with a smile on his face.

“It’s no problem. You can keep it if you want,” Gerard said, shrugging. It didn’t seem like too grand of a gesture at the time, but it was enough to cause Frank’s face to turn pink.

“Oh, uh, okay. Thanks again,” Frank said, seeming more hesitant-- maybe nervous.

The rest of the walk back was quiet, other than the noise of passing cars and other strangers bustling by on the sidewalk. It wasn’t until they actually entered Gerard’s apartment when Gerard _finally_ decided to say something.

“Was that a date?” At first, Gerard thought he sounded a bit defensive, but when Frank bit at his bottom lip and shrugged, he figured he was okay.

“I-- I _guess_ , if you _wanted_ it to be,” Frank said with another shrug. He bit at his thumbnail, glancing all over the room, but mostly looking back up at Gerard every few seconds.

“Oh, okay. I kind of did,” Gerard said softly. “Want it to be a date, I mean.”

Frank smiled, this time Gerard could tell it was genuine, not just a friendly kind of thing.

“So um-- books,” Frank said, his eyes lighting up and walking towards Gerard’s bookshelf. He followed Frank, of course, standing behind him just as he had at the bookstore. Now was his chance to make a move, and since neither of them disagreed on calling it a date, Gerard kind of figured he was in the clear.

Gerard placed his hands softly around Frank’s waist. Nothing _too_ low, like on his hips, which seemed like they would be nice to grab on anyway, but that was something to think about later. He felt Frank tense slightly, and he turned his head a little to look back at Gerard, with the _faintest_ hint of a sheepish grin on his face.

“You’re not really one for taking things slow, are you?” Frank asked, giggling a little as he felt Gerard inch just a bit closer.

“I can be slow. But I get the feeling you’re not exactly slow either,” Gerard said, gently resting his chin on top of Frank’s shoulder.

“You’re certainly right about that.”


End file.
